Thursday, March 29, 2007

The Greater Des Moines Music Coalition is putting on its second Gross Domestic Product local music showcase this Saturday at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. 15 bands, 10 bucks ($15 day of). This is a great opportunity for us Iowans to show our support for local music. I can't be there, so this is my show of support. Go GDP.

Awesome. According to Pitchfork, it appears New Pornographers are working on a new album that may come out in August! This will be their fourth release and follows 2005's excellent Twin Cinema. New Pornos are one of those great power pop bands disguised as an indie band. They have enough quirk and variety in lyrics, voices, and delivery to make them more than appealing to the hipsters, yet at their core they play perfect pop music. Their music grows on me the more I listen to it. This is great news.

Wisely is working with the original Willie Wisely Trio on a brand new album. I was first introduced to Wisely upon release of his latest album Parador, which was a great find (thanks, Not Lame). I've also heard great things about his earlier work so we'll see how the new one sounds when it's released. No mention of a release date.

SXSW is overwhelming. It's a dream to someday go to Austin and submerge myself in the countless awesome shows, but until then, I have to try to dissect all the reports I read. This year, Not Lame is making it a bit easier by releasing a free album via download of their highlights at this year's SXSW. The album will only be posted for a few days, so get it now.

Gusteris releasing the Satellite EP: 8 songs for 8 bucks. Guster fans, you read about it here. Guster says you can pre-order it here.

Guster provides a bit more insight into the EP:

Bullet Point 1. As those of you followed the studio journal know, this is only half of Guster's current b-side treasury. The rest of the album rejects will hopefully see the light of day some time in the near future too.

Bullet Point 2. The Satellite EP is entirely carbon-neutral. The carbon emissions from the manufacturing process have been offset with renewable energy credits, and the ink used on the package was soy ink. Go Adam, go!

Bullet Point 3. You might recognize that "I'm Through" has a very familiar verse melody ... the song was discarded and used for parts and eventually re-built into "C'mon." We thought you might like a small window into our songwriting process. Enjoy that small window.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

It'sofficial. The first release from Hear Music, Starbucks' record label, will be a new album from Paul McCartney, due early summer.

“For me the great thing is the commitment and the passion and the love of music, which as an artist is good to see,” said McCartney. “It’s a new world now and people are thinking of new ways to reach the people and for me that’s always been my aim.”

For a huge fan like myself, it's more important that Paul's releasing new music so soon.

“It is such a privilege to be able to present this amazing new album to the world,” said Glen Barros, president and CEO of the Concord Music Group. “I believe that McCartney fans, like myself, will find that this album connects them to everything that they’ve always loved about Paul, yet also delivers a new personal dimension that shows his continued evolution as an artist. It is a truly profound recording.”

Just announced today is confirmation of the oft rumored reissue of the entire two-album catalog of The Traveling Wilburys, that superest of supergroups featuring George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. The albums have been out of print for a decade. Rhino is releasing the remastered albums June 11. The release will feature a bonus DVD of videos and a documentary as well as two unreleased songs (!!!!!) and two hard-to-find rarities.

Looks like Jason Falkner's new album release has been pushed back to April 26. At least that's the availability via Amazon. At least they have it for pre-order already! Now, can I wait for the US release later this summer? Hmmm.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Here's one that tickles the memory banks of my youthful days (guess I'm reflective today) yet has perfect relevance now. Jeff Heiskell is the former leader of The Judybats. Think back now: Daylight, She's Sad She Said, Saturday, Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow, Being Simple, Pain Makes You Beautiful.... And if you are unaware of the aforementioned tunes, in addition to the countless others that are worthy of your attention, well, there's not much you can do about it. It seems everything is out of print. You can pick up used copies, and it would be worth the minimal purchase, but it's extremely unfortunate that this band, which was pretty popular among my friends in high school and college, has been wiped clean from commercial history.

Anyway, Jeff Heiskell is releasing a solo album on April 10. Read more here and listen to a couple tracks here. The vocals are distinctively his, but he's right, the music and lyrics are a bit of a downer:

This is a dark, brooding collection of songs whose lyrics are often disguised by upbeat melodies and arrangements.

From what I can tell, this is only available through his Web site. Order here. And while you're at it, order some classic Judybats as well by clicking the above links.

This is perfect. I have very fond memories of my childhood when my brother, cousin, and I would work play with Legos and listen to the Beatles. This is a perfect representation of those memories.

Now, if there'd only be a peanut butter & jelly sandwich made with half a jar of each ingredient, a reel-to-reel machine that's out of batteries, and a stupid f---ing bee, then the memories would be complete.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

I was surfing around with my iLike iTunes plug-in and came across a recommendation of The Fray. I'd heard a couple tunes before and finally figured out they were in a couple episodes of the awesomely underrated Scrubs TV show. How To Save A Life is full of rich, lush and spacious power pop. While it probably borders a bit on the "way too poppy" side, I didn't get my name for nothing.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Ok, I suppose they do, but what I mean really is that Def Leppard lives - in spirit! Bleu, one of the masterminds behind the ELO homage LEO has now turned his attention to Loud Lion, an homage to the band with the drummer with only one arm and all the other hair metal bands that were never as good. Loud Lion includes John Fields, a guy from Rooney, a gal from the Donnas, Andrew WK, and a drummer with only one leg. Yeah, kinda weird.

It's certainly righteous ... righteous after a few Sierra Nevada Pale Ales that is. I don't think I could buy this in my right mind, but listening to the tunes on theirspace is quite entertaining. Not unlike LEO, they are spot on again.

I'm tiring of this story. The latest from the Beatles camp is that there is no imminent plan to release their catalog for digital download. Wtf? Rolling Stone has the brilliant idea of just ripping the CDs. No shit. But compare the songs from those CDs with newer releases like 1 and Love and you'll understand why we fanatics want remastered digital releases!

Naturally, "solo" means he was in a band prior to this, right? He started his too poppy-worthy career in The Tories, a straight-forward power pop band that reminded many of Jellyfish. I too was reminded of Jellyfish, but a more commercially accessible Jellyfish, if that makes sense. Yes, it does. Anyway, the highlight of The Tories two-album career was the five-star Flying Solo, a perfect few minutes of too poppy glory. If you want to know what this blog is about, download Flying Solo now.

Following The Tories' lack of commercial success despite sounding more commercially accessible than Jellyfish (stay with me) and despite one of their tunes being chosen as the theme song to a Christina Applegatesitcom (not especially a cool thing, but he got closer to Applegate than I ever will), Bertrand moved on to Avion. I have nothing to say about Avion. I have never heard Avion. I'll rectify that problem at a future time. My guess would be that they sound a lot like The Tories.

Now that Avion has "taken a little holiday for the time being," Bertrand is keeping up his impressively prolific output by releasing the new album. You can stream a few tracks here. I would characterize his music not unlike Gin Blossoms; nothing out of the ordinary with, at times, extraordinary hooks and melody. And, oh yeah, he sounds more commercially accessible than Jellyfish.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Toyota Yaris is trying desperately to appeal to their target audience (hint: cut it out with the "yr" shit, not that I'm part of that target anymore.) But I give them credit for injecting themselves into arguably the best new music showcase of the year, SXSW. In fact, they have a whole page of free MP3s for your pleasure. I haven't checked on the quality and all that. I'll leave that to you. Just know that they get bonus points for listing The Broken West first.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Guster likes kids -- all kinds of kids -- real kids, indie kids, kids-at-heart. Guster even proved they like kids by "performing" on the hip and seemingly truly original public access show Pancake Mountain, which can be seen in the DC area (public access shows in Des Moines include some crazy old far-right pastor who has an affinity for American flag ties, some cheezy Jesus freak who plays popular Christian music while attempting to lip sync to them, and ghost hunters who never find anything ("the temperature right here is two degrees cooler than over there"), not Pancake Mountain.)

Hitting the web is news that Paul McCartney has left Capitol Records after 40+ years. The story reports that he will be taking his entire back catalog with him as well (solo, that is) and taking it all to the new label started by Starbucks called Hear Music. Most importantly is that it says Macca will have a new record coming out this fall.

The story says this is all being reported by Fox News, which is impossible to verify because their web site is embarrassingly cluttered. I'm not one to normally jump on a rumor without verifying it with a better news source than FemaleFirst.co.uk, but this is Paul McCartney. More soon I hope.

UPDATE: From the New York Post (not the reputable news source I was looking for) and Fox News (simply "reporting" on the Post's story), it sounds like Starbucks may be close to announcing a new record label called Starbucks Records and McCartney may be releasing his next album on it, not the already existing Hear Music, which merely licenses songs to put on compilations. Nothing mentions him taking along his back catalog. Damn Interweb. Hmm.

Travishas released a video for their new single Closer. Inexplicably, there is an entirely pointless appearance from Ben Stiller. Good videos are so hard to come by. Sounds like good singles are also hard to come by.

Monday, March 12, 2007

You know you're finally seeing progress in your kids' music appreciation when your 4-year-old son asks to hear the "Salt and Pepper" song. It took about 15 minutes, but we figured out that it was Sgt. Pepper's. It was too hilarious not to document here.

Plus, it gives me an excuse to link to a storyWay2Poppy forwarded my way about The Fab Faux performing the Beatles album that never was (i.e. early solo tunes).

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Following the excellent news about a new Jason Falkner release, it appears Roger Joseph Manning Jr. will also be releasing a new album on April 18. As with Falkner's CD, it appears Manning's will only (or at least first) be released in Japan on Pony Canyon. One caveat: this release will be under Manning's remixer alter-ego Malibu (which was evidently and inadvertently given to Manning by Beck).

Now I don't know Japanese, but it's pretty clear that Manning is being credited on all these songs:

Ok, if my favorite artists keep releasing CDs only in Japan, my wife is going to start wondering why every album in my collection cost $35!

Jason Falkner is the latest to release only (or at least first) in Japan. His new album I'm Ok...You're Ok hits stores (there) on April 18. Bone up on your Japanese and read more about it here, courtesy of Noise McCartney Records. Cute name.

Keep checking back here. Hopefully Amazon.com will pick up the import soon.

UPDATE: Missed this part of his Web site's message: "...and will see a proper U.S. release this summer." Sweet.

Monday, March 05, 2007

I cannot understand why bands raise expectations so impossibly high for their next release. Sure, maybe lots of people will go out and buy/download it in its first week to inflate first week sales, but in the end, if you can't meet expectations, don't you just piss off your fans?

"In order for us to get excited about a new album, we have to have one song that we feel like everybody has to hear ... before we die, otherwise we'll be terribly depressed," Martin said. "So luckily with this new record we're going to make, we have that one song."

"I can't tell you about it, but it's basically genius," he joked.

Yep, that's Chris Martin of Coldplay "joking" about how great one song on their new album will be. Come to think of it, isn't that downplaying expectations? "We have one great song on the new album. The rest will sound like Fix You." Hmm.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

The Trash Can Sinatras have a new release out on Chemikal Records called "half an apple" on the 'ballads of the book' album, pairing contemporary scottish poets with musicians. The album is released on March 5 in the uk and April 3 in the USA. Universal is also re-releasing most of the bands' discography everywhere but North America.

My first exposure to the band was at the Masquerade Music Park in Atlanta and their inaugual event. TCS was one of about 7 bands which played, culiminating in an unbelievable performance by none other than Jellyfish.

Oh dear. Guster is releasing a live version of Total Eclipse of the Heart on the upcoming Satellite EP. Guster might be one of the only one to pull this off. Guster, good luck because I have my doubts. Me gusta Guster.

Palms & Runes is the new best-of compilation from Michael Pennnow due in stores April 17.

According to Spencer at the Pennlist, "The new versions are significantly different from the originals - Lucky One loses the Ronnie Spector treatment, Bunker Hill and Cupid are entirely reimagined - and one of my favorite songs, Try, sounds similar, but a bit more rocking and raw than the original. The rest of the CD, especially March era recordings, sound better and more vibrant after getting the re-mastering treatment."

Sounds like it might be worth it, even for those of us with every one of his releases. Tracklist:

Lucky One (Version One) (Previously Unreleased)

Bunker Hill (New Version) (Previously Unreleased)

Out Of My Hands

Cupid's Got A Brand New Gun (New Version) (Previously Unreleased)

Coal

Try (Alt. Vers.) (Previously Unreleased)

No Myth

Barely A Sound (Instrumental) (Previously Unreleased)

Don't Let Me Go

All That That Implies

Whole Truth

Brave New World

Me Around (Demo) (Previously Unreleased)

Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In) (New Version) (Previously Unreleased)